6) Winds of change: The shifting startup landscape

750+ Startup founders and employees share their thoughts on the downturn

To highlight how the changing economic downturn is affecting innovators, we collected data from startup founders and employees in April through August 2022. The goal was to identify new founder challenges, changing market conditions and better understand the employee perspective.

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Cost Cutting

Through cost cutting, the majority of startups were able to significantly extend their runaway

WITH RECENT COST CUTTING, BY HOW MANY MONTHS WERE YOU ABLE TO EXTEND YOUR RUNWAY?

32^% No change
17^% 1-3 Months
25^% 3-6 Months
15^% 6-9 Months
11^% 9+ Months

Securing Sales

Return to reality: Securing sales steadily grows in importance as founders must show validation much earlier on

34^% Ranked sales as their top focus in April 2022
47^% Ranked sales as their top focus in May 2022
54^% Ranked sales as their top focus in June 2022

Fundraising continues to be a top challenges, as many founders report they are worried about raising their next round

Are you worried about raising your next round?

7^% Not at all
29^% Not really
49^% Somewhat
15^% Very

BUDGETS

Is the recession here? Some clients are shrinking budgets but the trend is not widespread

39^% Of startups

report a decline in client budgets

Employee sentiment

Despite the cooling hiring market, startup employees are still thinking about the next big thing

Despite the market slowdown, employees are continuing to take advantage of the immense talent gap in the market, consistently shopping around for new opportunities in ventures or corporates. Around half of employees state that they are considering quitting their job in the next 12 months, a number that shows problematic attrition rates that are plaguing the local ecosystem.

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